Chimney fire in 5 months of using our new VC Dauntless....

[trailrated]

I have a 5 month old VC Defiant. We have burnt about 5 full cords so far. I believe we had 4 chimney fires but I managed them myself. Sounds like a freight train and the whole house rumbles. After the 4th chimney fire I got a chimney sweep with a camera and he says the pipe is immaculate. With all that said, why does a person need to sweep after every cord? Or is that a personal preference? I did buy a chimney pipe cleaner but it says to do it once a year.

A person doesn't need to sweep after every cord if they know what they're doing, know their stove and the condition of their wood. If someone has marginal wood, is getting a lot of build up in the stove/pipe then its a safe bet to sweep more often until things get dialed in. Once a season is the "norm". When you have 4 chimney fires in 5 months.....you're doing something wrong. If you indeed a had a chimney fire, that is why your pipe looked clean. Everything was burnt off. But you're playing with fire....literally having that many chimney fires already.

 

[wolfize69]

Five cords is a lot.. I sweep mid season every year just to see how things are going. If your having that much of an issue.. Id check your wood for sure. If your wood is in good shap 20% mc and lower you should be fine.. Open a pice of wood check the MC on the freshly split face with the pinsbehind with the grain and split shoud be room temperature.. DO NOT CHECK ON THE OUTSIDE OR END GRAIN.. this is a false reading.. your checking internal moisture of the split. Also you should be burning with the cat installed.. are you? Kinda sounds like a high MC wood..

I will purchase a moisture reader because we are buying different wood from several different people that tell us 15-20% MC.

A person doesn't need to sweep after every cord if they know what they're doing, know their stove and the condition of their wood. If someone has marginal wood, is getting a lot of build up in the stove/pipe then its a safe bet to sweep more often until things get dialed in. Once a season is the "norm". When you have 4 chimney fires in 5 months.....you're doing something wrong. If you indeed a had a chimney fire, that is why your pipe looked clean. Everything was burnt off. But you're playing with fire....literally having that many chimney fires already.

There are no doubts that the cords I have been buying are recently cut and split
Although everyone of them says it is seasoned and 15-20% MC. I have since, bought 10 creosote remover bricks and 2 creosote remover logs and have followed the instructions. Hopefully no more chimney blazes. Man one of the fires looked like those refinery smokestacks where the flames are shooting out the top. Was scary. We moved in here a year ago.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I will purchase a moisture reader because we are buying different wood from several different people that tell us 15-20% MC.

There are no doubts that the cords I have been buying are recently cut and split
Although everyone of them says it is seasoned and 15-20% MC. I have since, bought 10 creosote remover bricks and 2 creosote remover logs and have followed the instructions. Hopefully no more chimney blazes. Man one of the fires looked like those refinery smokestacks where the flames are shooting out the top. Was scary. We moved in here a year ago.

Get that moisture meter and test where you plan to keep your wood and after having had the wood inside for 24 hours (split fresh down the middle for each piece).
That'll give you an idea of where you are with your moisture content.
You meter will also tell you how to adjust for what temperature your wood is at the time, usually. So the need to bring a piece inside for 24 hours may actually skew your MC results if you dont check into that. Id prefer to test the wood where it will reside prior to going into a stove. I only see a 1% variance either way on my cheap meter.

It sounds like the MC of your wood is too low, which would be a shock getting wood from a dealer that isnt too high.
4 hour burn time on that stove using oak,...something is wrong and you need to take a scientific approach to resolve this.

Too much draft, flapper not closing, poor seal, super dry wood, splits way too small...something...

 

[wolfize69]

Get that moisture meter and test where you plan to keep your wood and after having had the wood inside for 24 hours (split fresh down the middle for each piece).
That'll give you an idea of where you are with your moisture content.
You meter will also tell you how to adjust for what temperature your wood is at the time, usually. So the need to bring a piece inside for 24 hours may actually skew your MC results if you dont check into that. Id prefer to test the wood where it will reside prior to going into a stove. I only see a 1% variance either way on my cheap meter.

It sounds like the MC of your wood is too low, which would be a shock getting wood from a dealer that isnt too high.
4 hour burn time on that stove using oak,...something is wrong and you need to take a scientific approach to resolve this.

Too much draft, flapper not closing, poor seal, super dry wood, splits way too small...something...

Thank you for the input. I am in northern Minnesota so we can't stack any wood where it will be permanently because there is 3 feet of snow out there. (I don't have a plow I can get there with) So the 7 cords of wood I am cutting and stacking myself is going on the porch and in a big pile til the snow goes away.
I will check my size of logs though. Some are pretty small. The average size is about

 

[wolfize69]

Thank you for the input. I am in northern Minnesota so we can't stack any wood where it will be permanently because there is 3 feet of snow out there. (I don't have a plow I can get there with) So the 7 cords of wood I am cutting and stacking myself is going on the porch and in a big pile til the snow goes away.
I will check my size of logs though. Some are pretty small. The average size is about 3"×4".

What is an optimal size for longer burns?

 

[GrumpyDad]

What is an optimal size for longer burns?

I guess it's different for everyone but 3 is on the small side for a longer burn. Those are the pieces I would use after a kindling cold start to build up coals. Or in the morning when I just want a couple smaller splits on the coals to keep them going so that later in the day when it gets toward freezing again I can get the fire going.

I personally like to load in 4-5 inch pieces (sometimes a piece larger, and maybe one smaller piece to fill a void)

 

[a59cheffy]

Happy to report that the VC Dauntless and I are getting along fine now! Burned at least 10 fires since getting the chimney inspected.
Special thanks to Woodsplitter67 for the advice!
I am burning much hotter than I did before. Placed my STT centered back of the griddle.
Bypass open, air fully open. I build up the coal bed as quickly as possible using small splits, then medium. Door cracked. Takes about 30-45 minutes to reach 475-500 degrees STT.
Then I add a couple more medium splits, let them catch with door cracked, let it burn for a few minutes. Making sure there is a good coal bed at this point. If not, I add one more split and let it burn maintaining temperature around 500 degrees.
With coal bed established and added splits are burning clean (no smoldering) I shut the door leaving the air fully open.
I don't mess with the air unless it starts creeping up to 600 degrees. Since I don't have a CAT installed yet I just leave the bypass open.
I can maintain the temperature around 500 degrees by just adding a couple of larger splits no bigger than 6 or 7 inches. Making sure I only have two larger splits burning at a time. One thing the manual states is to make sure added splits catch before closing the doors. I basically just make sure the wood does not smolder at any time and there is lively flames in the chamber with the door closed.
Looked up the chimney yesterday and could see no signs of creosote where it was building up before.

In retrospect I can see why us newbies would have alot of problems with a VC stove. These stoves need good airflow when the doors are closed, need to burn hot with a coal bed, and wood needs to be seasoned and checked with a meter.

Thanks all !!

 

[GrumpyDad]

Happy to report that the VC Dauntless and I are getting along fine now! Burned at least 10 fires since getting the chimney inspected.
Special thanks to Woodsplitter67 for the advice!
I am burning much hotter than I did before. Placed my STT centered back of the griddle.
Bypass open, air fully open. I build up the coal bed as quickly as possible using small splits, then medium. Door cracked. Takes about 30-45 minutes to reach 475-500 degrees STT.
Then I add a couple more medium splits, let them catch with door cracked, let it burn for a few minutes. Making sure there is a good coal bed at this point. If not, I add one more split and let it burn maintaining temperature around 500 degrees.
With coal bed established and added splits are burning clean (no smoldering) I shut the door leaving the air fully open.
I don't mess with the air unless it starts creeping up to 600 degrees. Since I don't have a CAT installed yet I just leave the bypass open.
I can maintain the temperature around 500 degrees by just adding a couple of larger splits no bigger than 6 or 7 inches. Making sure I only have two larger splits burning at a time. One thing the manual states is to make sure added splits catch before closing the doors. I basically just make sure the wood does not smolder at any time and there is lively flames in the chamber with the door closed.
Looked up the chimney yesterday and could see no signs of creosote where it was building up before.

In retrospect I can see why us newbies would have alot of problems with a VC stove. These stoves need good airflow when the doors are closed, need to burn hot with a coal bed, and wood needs to be seasoned and checked with a meter.

Thanks all !!

Burning hot but not too hot with damper open.
Or too hot in the cat.
Else creosote land.
Those are the options for the new stove owner.
That's the issue with VC stoves. It's a fine line and a new or even seasoned stove owner will be driven mad by this.
It definitely isn't something you can leave alone. Sadly that's what you should be able to do with a stove. Once a nice fire has been established, turned down to a predictable level. Overnight burns with an alarm of three sure. But even then I've had a few wtf moments waking up to see my stove either damped down too much or blazing and I've done nothing different from previous night.
So be careful is all I'm saying with over night burns.